[ejgs402]

So I got my new group together for the first time last night to do character creation, sample combat, and talk about the upcoming game. We settled a lot of stuff, but when it came to setting, nobody really wanted to do Seattle, so I opened it up to suggestions. Someone asked about Chicago, so I explained about the containment zone and Bug City, which I assumed would turn them off, but actually everyone seemed really interested in the idea.

Unfortunately, I'm not finding a ton of info on Chicago as a setting--the North America sourcebook is pre-Bug City, and I'm sure the politics have changed substantially, so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas/resources for running a game set in Chicago--maps and info on the current political situation would be especially appreciated.

[Mirikon]

Feral Cities is your best bet.

[Mantis]

There is also the 3rd ed book Bug City which is all about Chicago. You'd need to update things in there to take into account stuff covered in Feral Cities.

[Crimsondude]

Bug City was Second Edition, but it is BY FAR the best resource on Chicago. I wouldn't even bother with Feral Cities (To be clear, while I made sure it followed FC continuity, I spent FAR more time using Bug City as a resource when I wrote the Chicago-set adventure in Artifacts Unbound [Mainly in that I corrected the gross omission of the mile-high Truman Tower and references to the Chicago Core as it was known in mid-21st century Chicago, which is literally 15 miles south of the RL Loop, aka Downtown/SR Noose]. Actually the Core was bisected by the southern CZ wall).

Target: UCAS, which is also Second Edition, is what establishes post-CZ Chicago as basically being ... CZ Chicago, but with the Wall unmanned (not even gone).

Since then, some people have had the balls to move in and try and set up shop. Others just feed stuff for the stupendous badasses who remained to continue playing out Mad Max of the Midwest.

Then we have Dirty Tricks, which just came out, which establishes that the Illinois governor has finally seemed to tip the fulcrum towards a real push to rebuilding Chicago.

Which will lead into Missions Season 5 being set in Chicago, and who knows what next. Well, Bull does.

[ejgs402]

Thanks for the tip on Bug City, I hadn't even heard of it, but I got a copy and this is just about perfect.

[Crimsondude]

I think the only major differences you need to be aware of is that The Sanctum up and disappeared one night.

Anne Ravenheart is out of the CZ and busy elsewhere.

Catherine the Terrible was deposed by Vlad.

And ... there is a wyvern or adult dragon lurking in the Noose now.

The presumed finale of Too Many Secrets (my adventure from AU) is that after a very public chase from the Truman Tower on the southern CZ wall to the banks of the river just south of the Cermak Crater (the crater is on the north side of the Chicago River NNW of the 1-90/94 & I-55 interchange) or just north of the Adlai Stevenson Freeway (depending on how you want to describe it) a group of mercenaries and shadowrunners [the PCs] kill Friday, the last of the Winternight "Norns" and a bunch of chipped out loyalists.

And the Joint O'Hare Police Force may or may not have used their chase past Midway Airport to bomb the fuck out of the anarchist collective there. I don't know the canon status of that or what Bull has planned.

[Crimsondude]

OH ... Speaking of Season 5, Bull did an interview with the Critical Glitch podcast where he discusses the upcoming season and introduces some of the NPCs you will run into if you play Missions (and are thus canon regardless).

http://criticalglitch.com/?p=259